9. The Box Of Matzah That Saved A Jew

00:01 Hello, Pesach is coming. I wanna tell you a story, an amazing story about Pesach with the Rebbe. An amazing story. I know a shliach of the Rebbe with a shliach in a country called Holland. Can you say Holland? Say it with me, Holland. Actually, in Holland they speak a language which I know, 'cause I grew up in a country called Belgium. Can you say Belgium? Belgium. Belgium, uh, speaks Flemish, which is the same language they speak in Holland. So when I go to Holland, I can hear what they speak and I can understand it. Anyway, there's a shliach in Holland who is a very special person. Great, great, great shliach. And one day, it was two weeks before Pesach, and he gets a phone call. A phone call from New York, from New York, from 770 Eastern Parkway. Who is on the other line? Who is calling him? It's a Rav Chadakov. Chadakov is the Rebbe's most important secretary. You know what a secretary is? The one who's helping the Rebbe, you know, send his letters out and help give the Rebbe's answers to people. Rav Chadakov calls him on the phone, and calls the shliach, and says to him, "The Rebbe would like you to take, uh, a box of matzah, shmurah matzah for Pesach, and since it's two weeks before Pesach, he wants you to go to a certain town, a little, little, tiny town far away in the country of Holland, and I want you to bring it to a Jew there."

01:59 To a Jew. Didn't tell him what Jew, when Jew, uh, what his name is. He didn't tell him anything. He just said, "To a Jew." Well, the rabbi, the shliach, his name was Rabbi Forst. Rabbi Forst hears this, he said, "Whoa. Hmm. I didn't even know-- I don't even know if there are Jews in that place." Rav Chadakov says, "That's what the Rebbe said. You gotta listen. You gotta just do what the Rebbe says, and you'll find out by yourself what the Rebbe means." And so Rabbi Forst takes a box of matzah, gets into his car, and travels for five hours. A long time. Five to some... Till he gets to this tiny little town. And when he drives into the town, he stops at the first, uh, store. Goes into the store and says, "Who is the store owner here?" And they say, "Hey, you see over there, this guy? It's Charlie. His name is Charlie. He is the store owner." He goes over to Charlie and says, "Charlie, are there any Jews in this little town?" And the owner said, "Hmm. No. Uh, I don't know of any Jews here." "Hmm." So Rabbi Forst scratches his head and says, "Oy vey. What did the Rebbe want me to come here for? He want me to give me this matzah-- He want me to give this matzah to a Jew, but he-- uh, Charlie says there are no Jews in this town. What am I supposed to do now?" Okay. Then he says, "You

03:24 know what? Let me go to the next store. Maybe somebody here knows about a Jew." Goes to the next store, goes into the store and says, "Where is the owner of the store?" "Oh, okay. Schmendel. Schmendel. That's his name, Schmendel." They go into, he goes in. So he said, "Where is Schmendel?" "Schmendel is over there. He is the owner of the store." He says, he goes, "Schmendel, do you know if there are any Jews in the town?" And he says, "No, I don't know of any Jews in this town. I haven't seen any Jews." So he leaves the store and says, "Goodbye, Schmendel, and thank you very much, Schmendel, for helping me and for not helping me, and goodbye." He goes to the next... Now he goes to a restaurant. A restaurant. He thought a restaurant, maybe people in the restaurant will know if there is a Jew in the town. He asked people in the restaurant that's sitting by the tables, they're eating their chazatray food, and he says, "Hey, do you guys know if there's a Jew living in this town?" "No, no, no, no. We've never seen Jews in our lives. We don't even know Jews exist. Maybe there are no Jews in the world. We don't know. We've never been anywhere except for this town. We've never traveled outside this town. We don't know. A Jews? What is a Jew? We don't even know what a Jew means." Anyways, Rabbi Forst sees that this is crazy. He doesn't even know if

04:46 there's a Jew in the town. Nobody knows of any Jews. And the Rebbe said, "You have to give this matzah to a Jew." That then means that there must be a Jew somewhere in this town. What is he gonna do? So he spends the entire day looking for a Jew. Then he goes to, uh, a plumbing store. Says, "Who is the plumber in this store?" "Oh, he's the plumber. His name is Zunkel. Zunkel. Zunkel the plumber." "Zunkel, how long have you lived in this town?" "Oh, I've lived in this town, I'm 70 years old. I've lived in this town for so many years. Unbelievable." "And tell me, have you ever seen a Jew in this town?" "No. Never seen any Jews. Never. Never." "Hmm." Now Rabbi Forst gets really anxious. He doesn't know what to do. He doesn't know what to do. He wants to do what the Rebbe told him, but he can't do it. He can't do it. Oy. So he decides to spend the rest of the day going from store to store and from house to house. He stops people in the street and says, "Hey, how are you? Can you tell me if there is a Jew in the town?" You know how you say in Flemish a Jew? A Yod. A Yod. Is there a Yod in this town? Yod. No, no, no Yod in this town. Whoa, whoa, whoa. That's becoming very strange. Finally, it's getting already very late. It's almost sundown. He has to daven Mincha. So

06:25 he goes into a corner somewhere in the street and davens Mincha. And all the goyim that are passing by are looking, hey, it's a Jew that's shaking back and forth with a beard and a hat. He looks like a rabbi. And I see a rabbi in Flemish. Rabain. Rabain. They see a Rabain praying, davening, and shackling, swaying back and forth like with great kavana. And then he makes Oseh Shalom and he steps back. And what is he doing? Finally, when he finishes Mincha, he asks a few people that were watching him. He says, hey, did you see ever a Yod? A Jew, a Yod? They said, no, why? We never. What is a Yod? We don't even know what it is. Finally, he gets very desperate and he doesn't know what to do. So he has to go home because it's getting dark. She has to get into a car and drive four hours, five hours back home. So he hops into his car and he's very sad, very sad. He's almost crying because the Rebbe told him he must give the matzah to a Jew in this town and there is not a single Jew. What is he going to do? He knows if the Rebbe says it has to be that there is a Jew here. But nobody knows of any Jews. So honestly, so he said, but what can I do? I'll tell the Rebbe I couldn't find a Jew. Nobody knows where the Jew is. Finally, he drove out of town,

07:59 on his way out of town. Almost by the end of the town, he gets to a gas station. He thought he should fill up my car with gas so I can drive five hours to my house. And so he stops at the gas station and a young person comes out and says, oh, what can I do for you? Oh, I need to fill up my car with gas. Could you please do that? He says, sure, sure, sure. And the guy fills up the gas and he says, oh, can you pay so many dollars? Okay, he said, okay, I'll pay, I'll pay. But by the way, do you know if there's a Yod in this town? A Jew. The young man looks at him and says, just a moment. I'll be back soon. Now Rabbi Forst gets very scared. What is he going to do? Maybe he doesn't like Jews. Maybe that's why he's quiet and is going into the gas station. Maybe he's going to come out with a stick and he's going to beat him up because he doesn't like Jews. But then the young man comes out of the gas station and comes towards the car and tells Rabbi Forst, could you please come inside the building of the gas station because somebody wants to talk to you. Rabbi Forst is getting really anxious now. Oh, should I go in? Is there somebody there that doesn't like Jews that's going to beat me up? But I have to go because the Rabbi said

09:33 I have to give Matzah to a Jew. Maybe, who knows? He gets out of the car, goes into the building of the gas station and there sits a man who is 35 years old. The man says, I am the owner of the gas station. I heard from my worker who filled up your car with gas that you asked a strange question. You asked whether there is a Yod in this town. And Rabbi Forst says, yeah, yeah, I asked. Why do you ask, said the man in the chair. Rabbi Forst is getting scared. Maybe he doesn't like that he's asking such questions. He says, because there's a very famous Tzadik, a great Rebbe in New York City and he told me that I should bring Matzahs to a Yod in this town. So I'm looking for one Yod just to give a Matzah for Pesach. Pesach is coming up in two weeks. And when he said that, the man in the chair almost faints. He says, oh, oh, oh. He said, what's the matter? What's the matter? No, no, nothing, nothing. Give me a cup of water. What happened? I was just shocked when he told me this. Why were you shocked? And he says to Rabbi Forst, sit down. I want to tell you something. I am a Yod. Very few people in this town know that. My parents lived in this town before the war. You know the big war when the Germans came into all the countries in Europe and they killed the

11:20 Jews? And they killed my parents. This was many years ago when the Germans came into this town. And I was left alone. And none of the Jews were here. All the Jews either fled and ran away or they were killed. I was the only Jew left. I was a little boy. I was raised by a family, but I knew I was a Jew. And because I'm a Jew, I didn't want to get married to anybody in this town because a Jew is supposed to marry another Jew. So I didn't get married. I'm 35. I'm still not married. I have a very good friend who's not Jewish. In fact, he's a priest. A galach. But he's nice to the Jews. And he likes me, and we're always been very good friends. One day he says to me, "Hey, Chaim, why don't you become a Christian? Why don't you be- convert to our religion? You're never gonna be able to get married if you stay Jewish. I'll help you. You'll become like the Christians, and you'll be able to marry a Christian woman, and you'll forget about the fact that you're Jewish. You don't have to keep mitzvahs. You don't have to keep Shabbos because you're not a Jew anymore." And I said to him, "No, no, no, no. Please, my parents were killed because they're Jewish. You want me to now just become a Christian? No, I can't do that." So he said, "Okay, I understand." But a few weeks later, he sees that I'm still

12:59 not married, and I can't find... Because I'm looking for a Jew, and there's no Jews in the town except for me. So he says to me, "Yeah, maybe you would still consider becoming a Christian, and then you'll be able to marry one of the people here in the town." And I said, "No, no, no. How can I do this when my parents were killed by the Germans because they're Jewish, and now I'm gonna turn my back to them and become a Christian? No, I can't. That is Avodah Zarah. We can't do that. Jews are not supposed to worship idols, and the Christians, they worship idols." So he kept telling me this every few months till finally I said, "You know what? I have no choice because then I'll never get married, never find anybody, because there's no Jews in this town except for me. Let me see if Hashem is gonna give me a sign. If He wants me to stay Jewish, He'll give me a sign. I'll give Hashem three days. If He gives me a sign within these three days that He wants me to stay Jewish, then I'll stay Jewish, and I will not marry somebody who's not Jewish. Of course. Of course not. But if I don't see any signs that I'm a Jew and Hashem cares about me being Jewish, then I'll do what the goy says and become a Christian." And he turns to Rabbi Forst and says, "Guess what? The three days are almost over. Today is the

14:32 third day. The sun is almost setting, you see? After sundown today, the three days will be over, and I wouldn't have any sign from Hashem. But then you suddenly come in like this and say that the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Rebbe in New York, knew that there's a Jew in this town that asked Hashem for a sign that he is a Jew, so Hashem... He will know that Hashem wants him to stay Jewish, and he offers me matzah. What greater sign than this? This is the greatest sign. Wow, unbelievable. First of all, Hashem listened to my davening. He gave me a sign. And secondly, there's such a big tzadik living in New York, far away from here, that saw everything. He knows everything. He knew that there was this Jew in this town that nobody's ever heard of, and that wants to become, chas v'shalom, a Christian because he needs a sign from Hashem." So the Rebbe sent his shliach five hours away to bring matzah before Pesach to tell him, "Yeah, Hashem cares about you, that you're a Jew." And you guys know what happened? Well, Rabbi Forst said to this man, "Here is your matzah, first of all. I need to do what the Rebbe told me to do. But I wanna invite you to Pesach to come to my house. You take a car, you drive to my house." And that's what happened. He came for Pesach to the house of Rabbi, the shliach, Rabbi Forst. Rabbi Forst was a shliach in a

16:12 city called Amsterdam. It's in Holland. It's called Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a big city. Amsterdam. Can you say that? Okay, good. Um, so this man drove from this little town, came all the way to Amsterdam for Pesach, and stayed the whole Pesach with Rabbi Forst. Then he said to him, "Rebbe, I c- I, I need to g- uh, I can't go back to my town. I can't get married to anybody. If I'm gonna be Jewish, I need to marry somebody Jewish." And so Rabbi Forst said, "You know what? I'm gonna send you to yeshiva. First, you're gonna study Torah in Eretz Yisrael, and when you study Torah in Eretz Yisrael, you'll know how to be a Jew, how to live like a Jew, how to do mitzvahs, how to learn Torah, and then you'll find a nice wife in Eretz Yisrael." And that's what he did, and everything ended up great. Freilichen Pesach. Kosher and Freilichen Pesach.